Massachusetts Dept. of Correction v. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration

Decision Date13 September 1979
Docket NumberNo. 78-1490,78-1490
Citation605 F.2d 21
PartiesMASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, Petitioner, v. LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATION, Respondent.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Robert H. Claridge, Counsel, Dept. of Correction, Boston, Mass., with whom Lee Carl Bromberg, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., was on brief, for petitioner.

Barbara L. Herwig, Atty., Appellate Staff, Civil Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., with whom Barbara Allen Babcock, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Douglas N. Letter, Atty., Appellate Staff, Civil Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., were on brief, for respondent.

Before COFFIN, Chief Judge, CAMPBELL and BOWNES, Circuit Judges.

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge.

The Massachusetts Department of Correction (MDOC) petitions for review of a decision by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) declining to award MDOC a corrections training grant under the LEAA's discretionary funds program, 42 U.S.C. § 3736(a)(2).

LEAA funding of state and local law enforcement activities falls into two categories. Under 42 U.S.C. § 3736, 85 percent of LEAA's funds are allocated to the states by population for block grants. The remaining 15 percent are available for distribution "in the discretion of the Administration" to eligible applicants "according to the criteria and on the terms and conditions the Administration determines consistent with this chapter." 42 U.S.C. § 3736(a)(2). Acting under the latter, discretionary, provision LEAA released a program announcement on September 27, 1976, soliciting applications for, among other things, a "Corrections Training Program." This brief announcement described the program LEAA envisioned and stated that the agency contemplated five grants ranging from $30,000 to $250,000 for one year. The same document indicated that applications would be evaluated through "advisory reviews by panels of experts."

On March 5, 1977, MDOC submitted an application seeking about $250,000 to provide Interpersonal Communications Skills Training (IPC) to prison guards and other "line-departmental staff." Seventeen other applications were received by LEAA. Pursuant to LEAA Instruction ORO I 4560.1, LEAA's central office in Washington assembled a panel of experts to review the submissions and recommend action to the agency. The panel met for approximately three hours on the morning of May 3, 1977. The panelists prepared a scoresheet for each application, indicating how well each did on seven criteria drawn from the original program announcement. After an initial tabulation of the scores, eight applications whose average score totalled 55 or more (on a 100-point scale) were discussed in more detail.

It is not clear from the record what transpired next. The panel may have recommended that only the top two applications (Vermont and South Dakota) be accepted. Other evidence indicates that the chairman, William C. Mooney, may have decided to recommend only two applications. At any rate, chairman Mooney solicited comments on each application from the various panelists. On May 6 he sent a memorandum to LEAA Assistant Administrator J. Robert Grimes describing the panel review, recommending that Vermont and South Dakota be funded, and giving "brief summaries of the major weaknesses of the remaining 16 grant applications." Grimes, in turn, sent Mooney's memorandum to each of the regional LEAA administrators with a cover letter, dated May 13, stating that LEAA concurred in the panel's recommendations. On May 19 George K. Campbell, Regional Administrator for the New England area, sent a letter to Frank Hall, Commissioner of MDOC, informing him that Massachusetts' application would not be funded. As the reason for this decision, Campbell quoted verbatim from Mooney's summary of the "major weaknesses" of the Massachusetts application:

"The application did not reflect coordination with the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council, which is authorized by statute to provide training. The training methodologies were not innovative, the approach to comply with Part E requirements is more properly funded with block grant funds, and Massachusetts has participated in three years of NIC sponsored training programs."

On June 8, 1977 Hall wrote Campbell to request a hearing on the grant denial under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 3758(b) and 28 C.F.R. § 18.33. Pursuant to its regulations, 28 C.F.R. § 18.31, the Administration responded by directing LEAA's general counsel's office to conduct an adjudicative investigation. Charles Lauer, Deputy General Counsel, prepared a report which went to Hall on September 9. Lauer concluded that the agency decision had been made in accordance with the preannounced guidelines and that it had a rational basis. Admitting that one of the four reasons given by Campbell the Part E reason was unfounded, Lauer nevertheless maintained that the record amply supported the other three grounds, "especially the key concern that the application did not propose an innovative delivery technology." Unimpressed with this explanation, Hall continued to press his claim for a full hearing.

Six months later, on March 10, 1978, an adjudicatory hearing was conducted before Charles Rinkevich, a hearing examiner for LEAA. After taking testimony from witnesses presented by both sides and considering the parties' exhibits and submissions, Rinkevich issued a 13-page report, dated May 22, recommending that LEAA's rejection of the MDOC application be set aside and that Massachusetts receive a fresh review of its proposal. Rinkevich concluded that none of the four reasons cited by LEAA in its original decision letter was supported by substantial evidence. Moreover, he decided that the review process was not conducted in accordance with departmental guidelines, and that these procedural defects contributed to the erroneous findings of the panel.

Rinkevich submitted his report to James Gregg, LEAA Assistant Administrator for Planning and Management, who made the final agency decision. LEAA's counsel, Charles Lauer, also submitted a brief to Gregg, setting forth the Administration's exceptions to the examiner's report. On September 15, 1978 Gregg wrote MDOC's attorney, Robert Claridge, informing him that LEAA had decided to uphold the denial of Massachusetts' application, despite the examiner's recommendation. Gregg gave four reasons for his decision. First, he said, the LEAA procedural guidelines supposedly violated by the panel were not imposed by statute or official regulation, and thus were not legally binding on the agency. Second, such departures from agency guidelines as occurred did not render the process unfair, and the resulting decision was not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion. Third, the record contained substantial evidence to support the panel's decision, based on its findings that MDOC's proposal was not innovative. Gregg's fourth reason responded specifically to the allegations of procedural unfairness and indicated Gregg's conclusion that these asserted flaws did not "invalidate the ultimate findings and recommendations of the panel."

I.

The present petition for review was filed by Massachusetts in response to the Gregg letter. Section 3759 of 42 U.S.C. provides that any applicant "dissatisfied with the Administration's final action with respect to the approval of its application" or any applicant "dissatisfied with the Administration's final action under . . . section 3758 of this title (the hearing provision)" may petition the circuit court of appeals for the circuit in which the applicant is located for review of the action. § 3759(a). The court may affirm or set aside LEAA actions, in whole or in part, § 3759(c), or "for good cause shown," may remand to LEAA for the taking of further evidence, § 3759(b). "(T)he determinations and the findings of fact by the administration, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive." § 3759(b).

The substantial evidence standard requires an agency action to be supported by " 'such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.' " Appleyard's Motor Transportation Co., Inc. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 592 F.2d 8, 9 (1st Cir. 1979) (Quoting Universal Camera Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 340 U.S. 474, 477, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951)). See also Bunny Bear Inc. v. Peterson, 473 F.2d 1002 (1st Cir. 1973). Here, we think the evidence adduced at the adjudicatory hearing was adequate to sustain the final denial by LEAA of MDOC's grant application. By the same token, LEAA's final action was not "arbitrary, capricious, (or) an abuse of discretion." 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A) (the Administrative Procedure Act). The evidence compiled at the adjudicatory hearing indicates that LEAA made an informed and not unreasonable decision to deny Massachusetts a discretionary grant. It is not our function to second guess such a decision.

Under the governing statute, 42 U.S.C. § 3736, LEAA is to dispense its discretionary funds "according to the criteria and on the terms and conditions the Administration determines consistent with this chapter." Petitioner interprets this to mean that LEAA must make its grant awards based on criteria announced in advance. Respondent does not quarrel with this reading, and we accept it for present purposes. The issue, therefore, is whether the decision is consistent with the announced criteria. We think it was, even though LEAA, during the course of its administrative proceedings, eventually concluded that three of the four "reasons" asserted for the panel action were either erroneous, arbitrary, or irrelevant to the established criteria for the program. Those three were that MDOC lacked Part E training, that the state had previously taken part in National Institute of Corrections training, and that the proposal had not been coordinated with the ...

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